THE RETURN OF THE LORD IS SHIELDED FROM THOSE WHO HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING

And so as it was in the beginning when My Son came upon the earth. And the wisdom that I had to bring Him in was in a mystery and was shielded from the enemy’s eyes, and there was no understanding.

And so shall it be in this day and in this hour when My people come together and are filled with My Spirit, that I will begin to move and set in order My Son’s return.

For there is an hour that I am calling for My sons to be revealed. Even as the earth groans, so is it the hour of the revealing of My sons and My people as they are filled with My Spirit.

There are things that are coming to happen. There are movements of My Spirit that need to be demonstrated in this hour and in this time.

And if you will say to Me, “Yes, I will; yes, I will do the will of My Father,” then I will use you and I will begin to fill you with a filling of My Spirit that was greater than when it started. — An inspired utterance from the vessel of Carolyn Farias

When Jesus was presented in the temple as an infant, there were two old saints who were there by revelation. First, it had been revealed to Simeon that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ (Luke 2:25-35). Part of the revelation he also received was that Jesus would be a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles—something unheard of in those days as the Gentiles were outside of the covenant and considered dogs by the Jews.

The other old saint was Anna, a prophetess, who also came into the temple at exactly the time Joseph and Mary came in with Jesus (Luke 2:36-38). She gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem (v. 38).

Notice that she spoke to all those who were looking for redemption in Jerusalem. As it was with the Lord’s first coming, so shall it be with His Second Coming. Not everyone will be looking for Him. The mystery of His Second Coming will be shielded from many who are not expecting Him. There will even be scoffers who will doubt His coming (2 Pet. 3:3).

Here are at least three things we need to be mindful of that Peter points out concerning the coming of the Lord.

1. Do not forget that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. Remembering this one thing will keep you from being among the scoffers (2 Pet. 3:8).

2. Since the earth and its elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, we should carry ourselves in holy conduct and godliness (2 Pet. 3:11), and be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless (v. 14). So much for the hyper-grace doctrine and being covered by carte blanche. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).

3. Thirdly, we should always be looking for and hastening the coming of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:12), looking for the new heavens and a new earth (v. 13) and looking forward to these things (v. 14). This is an inward look that sees the things that are eternal and not the temporal. Several of the Bible’s references of the Lord’s coming speak of a looking posture that we are to remain in.

“Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13, NKJV).

Don’t be found among those who fall from their own steadfastness and are led away by the error of the wicked, but continue to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:17-18).

Be continually filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18-19), and you will stay ready for the Lord’s coming, and you will even have spiritual understanding of the time and season of it.

Here is a short video oCarolyn’s Spirit-inspired utterance followed by an exhortation from Bert.

THE IDOL OF PROFESSIONAL MINISTRY MUST BOW

This is a journal entry from April 2002 when my life and ministry was transformed during an extended time of prayer and fasting. It is a word from God that is fitting for many in this hour when the “idol” of professional ministry shall bow to Jesus and His life (The Journal Of A Journey To His Holiness). 

Think back to your former days when in your innocence and simplicity you possessed a certain awareness of the reality of My presence. Surprisingly, as your knowledge of My Word increased, you forfeited a portion of that awareness. “Ministry” spoiled the innocence and simplicity of our fellowship. Your mind became somewhat corrupted by “ministry.” Religion entered back into your life in a different form and worked a measure of death birthed by the works of man.

If you will be honest with yourself and remember those former days, you will have to admit that you had an awareness of My presence not only in your solitude with Me, but on the job as well. You had a sensitivity to the sinner and were always aware of Me when in their presence. But then after being trained for ministry, and being always around believers, performance and activity became the king of all your service. A measure of My love was diminished and a measure of My awareness was lost. Religion again worked its course in you to separate you from Myself.

Put away all residue of religion and move on into the glorious life and liberty of the Son. Move on into the communion of the Holy Spirit in all phases of your life.

Walk in the light of God and experience the life and liberty of the Son. 

I would have you know that My Son was the most un-religious person that ever walked the face of the earth. He was the last Adam. What the first Adam possessed before the fall, the last Adam possessed without ever falling. In the first Adam, before the fall, there was no religion. There were no temples made with human hands. There were no religious groups and denominations. There was not to be in the original purpose of the Godhead a division among men concerning religious persuasion or doctrine. These things are now all a product of sin and of the curse that came upon the earth.

There was no division between the spiritual and the natural. My kingdom was a part of all of Adam’s life. There was no division between his ministry to Me and his personal life. It was all one.

As I have already spoken to you, one of the greatest idols in these last days that will bow its knee to My presence is the idol of “ministry”. “Ministry” has a subtle way of spoiling the simplicity of a walk with Me. The idol of ministry is birthed by the spirit of religion. It is man using My Word to do their own will in ministry. That is the reason for so much of the division that exists in My body today.

In My Holy Spirit of Truth there is no division. If all men would learn to humble themselves and bow their wills to My life and My mind, the Spirit of Truth would teach them. My true life and liberty has been sacrificed on the altar of the stubborn will of man. The Spirit of Truth has been quenched by the muddy waters of religion that works through the will of man.

I would have you know, son, that it was the filthy hands of religion that crucified the innocent clean hands of My life on that cross. It is still the filthy hands of religion today that crucify My life on the altar of the human will of man. It was the filthy hands of the religious spirit that opposed and then crucified the glorious life and liberty of the Son. Lucifer so opposes this life and liberty that is found in My Son because it defies religion and the selfish will of man.

Study Isaiah chapter 14. See how Lucifer fell. Hear what he said. Was it not his will that opposed Me and My reign? Lucifer’s will desired exaltation. A desire for an honored reputation led to his fall. He has great hatred for all mankind, but especially toward those who only desire to do the will of the Father, and not their own.

That is why the Son uttered phrases like, “I came not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” “…My judgment is just because I seek not My own will, but the will of the Father which has sent Me.” “And My delight is to do Your will, oh God.” Statements like this were like a slap to Lucifer’s face.

In the depths of that delight to do the Father’s will lies the secret of deliverance from the spirit of religion. It is all found in the will. The key is to surrender your will on the altar of His life.

In the hearing and obeying of My counsel lies the secret to possessing that life. That life is a life of liberty that is free of religion. Religion is based on activity and performance outside of hearing and obeying. Liberty comes when you hear and obey what I say. Doing your own will engenders bondage.

The only kind of religion that is pure is the kind written in James 1:27 which is to take care of widows and orphans and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

This is a living word which produces a living faith.

A book for our time, commanding the remnant to arise. Get your copy now!  The Tumultuous 2020s

A SPIRITUAL LABORATORY ANALYSIS OF WHAT IS PRESENTLY HAPPENING IN AMERICA AND WHAT THE CHURCH’S RESPONSE MUST BE

The following article is an excerpt from what one old Pentecostal minister termed the best, most dynamic, timely and seasonal book he’s read in a long time, PASSING ON THE MOVE OF GOD TO THE NEXT GENERATION.

One day Satan asked himself a question:

“How can I destroy America? No army can defeat them. Their economy is foolproof. They’re geographically isolated and cannot be invaded. I know what I’ll do. I’ll get them through their children. I’ll erase the commandments, the godly traditions, the family, morality, ethics, truth, and decency.”

We are seeing this today in increasing proportions.

Then, while pondering on this evil, hellish strategy, Satan says:

“If I can get the Holy Spirit out of the Church, I can really take over.”

And so there you have it — a spiritual laboratory analysis of what is presently happening in America. I wonder which evil strategy is the worst. Are you more concerned about what is happening in the nation or in the Church?

My concern is not as much for the nation, or the government, or the evils that have befallen our society because I understand that an evil, decadent society is never a match for the glorious, Spirit-filled Church.

Jesus walks among the lampstands (churches — Rev. 2 and 3). His concern is for the state of His Church. Although God is concerned about governments and His Word exhorts us to pray for all those in authority, for kings, presidents, governors, and such (1 Tim 2:1-2), there is hardly a mention found in the New Testament of the evils prevalent in a nation, a society, or the government. No word from the New Testament writers on Nero, Herod, or any ruling Caesar. No complaints about wicked governments, criticisms about wicked kings, how evil society was, or the state of failing economies. No attention was given to any of these issues. The Church and the spiritual health and welfare of the saints have always been the issue. Jesus wants His lampstands to burn bright.

As long as we are in this world, there will always be sin and evil. Nations, societies, and governments are made up largely of unregenerate sinners. Sinners are dead in their trespasses and sins. They are possessed by a sinful nature that makes them slaves to sin. Until they come to Christ and are born again, they are powerless to overcome the ravages of sin.

A strong spiritual Church burning brightly in the midst of a decadent society is our only hope. The true Church is the voice and moral conscience of a nation, and a restrainer of sin and evil.

The mind of the Spirit that the early apostles possessed was for the Church to be salt and light in society and to impact it through its character, power, and authority. A Church full of the Holy Spirit and reflecting the glory of God will affect any society. But to actually change society, you must change the hearts of the individuals within it.

The power and testimony of a transformed life and a heart on fire speak louder than any old tradition, new program, perfected logic, polished sermon, or eloquent speech. Give the local church a few burning testimonies of changed lives, and it can start to impact a city.

“Come see a man who told me all things that I ever did” (John 4:29).

Where is the power of the Spirit-inspired testimony in the Pentecostal/Charismatic and evangelical churches? It is only the effectual working of God’s power in a human heart that will allow a man to go outside of himself and share the gospel boldly and testify of Jesus. “In order to stop me, you’ve got to kill me,” is the battle cry of the radically transformed man.

“For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

When the saints of God are spiritually healthy and vibrant, it brings light into the local church and city. So precious are those who are on fire for Jesus, especially in times of gross darkness and moral decline as we are in now. Heaven takes note of them, and they shall shine as the stars forever.

“Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12:3).

In a time of spiritual declension in Great Britain in the 1800s, Catherine Booth, wife of Salvation Army founder William Booth, went about the churches “looking for burning words.” She recognized that doctrine alone is not enough. Logical-sounding phrases and great swelling words are not enough. Oratorical skills are not enough. We must have the Word on fire and the power and move of the Holy Spirit.

Many churches need to get out of the twilight zone of cessation theology and postmodernism, and learn what it means to be filled with the mighty Holy Spirit and press on into all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19).

While there are pockets of revival throughout certain parts of the nation, there has also been a disturbing trend in many Pentecostal and Charismatic churches of a lack of emphasis on the work, power, and fullness of the Holy Spirit. Listen to the words of the late John G. Lake, that great apostle to South Africa:

“I believe that the first essential in a real Holy Ghost church and a real Holy Ghost work is to begin to surround the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the reverence due an experience so sacred and so terribly costly.”

The gospels and the book of Acts portray the original blueprint for the operation of the real Church. She was born in Spirit and fire (Acts 2:1-4) and can thrive only in the same. Yes, thrive even in the midst of a morally declining and grossly dark, decadent society.

More Spirit and fire churches is the real cure for America’s degradation and society’s ills.

Imagine if all Pentecostal/Charismatic churches caught fire. Imagine if all evangelical churches did, too. The impact on our nation would be unprecedented.

More of the workings and fullness of the Spirit is what we need — and fire, fire, fire on the churches of Jesus Christ!!!

Be a support to us and follow our blog and help spread these messages. Also, consider subscribing to our ministry YouTube channel for weekly 15 minute Face to Face video impartations on the Spirit-filled life from my wife and I.  

Our books are forerunners to personal holiness, the move of God, and the return of the Lord. They also combat the departure from the faith and the turning away from the truth we are seeing in our day. 

Also, this ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those who believe in the mandate and message of revival and restoration that this ministry carries. Again, if this article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a tax-deductible contribution through our Paypal button to help? 

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Thank you, and may God’s richest and best be yours.

FIRST LOVE LOVERS: AN END TIME THEME

Jesus said that His Word would judge everyone who rejects Him and fails to receive His words (John 12:48). Conversely, His Spirit is like a fire that burns the present hour speaking of His Word into our hearts.

Rev 2:1-5 is such a word. This message of returning to your first love is an end-time theme and one the Church so desperately needs.

The church at Ephesus possessed some noble characteristics. Jesus commended this church for many things. By today’s standards this church would be thought of as a strong and even dynamic church. They had doctrinal and moral purity, labored without growing weary, the people were active in the affairs of the church, had exercised patience and perseverance etc., but there was one thing Jesus had against them; they had forsaken their first love. Jesus called this position a fallen place or in today’s terminology, a backslidden state. What a lesson to learn that Jesus, the Head of the Church, does not see as man sees.

What does the Lord of glory see in today’s churches? What of those who boast in great attendance, occupy large buildings, and have dynamic programs for their members? Jesus does not esteem things as a man esteems them. He so often regards as least that which men esteem highly. On the other hand, those things that men often esteem lowly are so highly regarded by the Master. You see, it doesn’t matter what size building, attendance, or organizational powers and abilities a church possesses. If first love has passed, then it is a fallen church, and one in danger of having its lamp-stand removed from its place (Rev 2:5).

The lamp-stand represents the church, and the stars are the angels (Rev 1:20). Every church ordained by God has an angelic covering that symbolizes the power and anointing for that church to operate. The lamp-stand being put out represents the angel leaving and being assigned elsewhere. There are churches that still exist today whose angel left 100 years ago. Sad, but true. There is no longer a covering or an anointing for that church to operate. They lost their love for Jesus. Over a period of time religion had hardened their human spirits and left the hidden places of their hearts untouched. Thus, intimacy with Jesus was lost, and by failing to make the adjustment the church lost her power.

Religion is the crowning work of Satan. He works to extinguish the intimacy of the Lord from our lives so that everything we produce comes out of works not born of love, but of duty. These are dead works. The spirit of religion always causes us to produce outside of the new nature, which is love. This results in a form without the power. Falling in love with Jesus and staying in love with Jesus is your sure foundation for protection against the deception of having a form without the power.

The apostle Paul’s heart cry to know Jesus (Phil 3:10) was like the loaded gun he carried in life and ministry. He called it a prize to be won. Here is a man who had come to visions and revelations, some not to be uttered…he had come to a place of great power in ministry where handkerchiefs were taken from his body and placed on the sick and demon possessed, and the diseases and demons left them…angels had visited him…mighty churches were raised up by him…and nearly two-thirds of the New Testament was written by him. Yet, Paul’s chief aim was for the prize of knowing Christ, and having a privileged seat next to Jesus for all of eternity (Rev 3:21). Do you want that seat?

Not all saints will sit on thrones in the holy city (Rev 20:4). That beloved city is the Bride of Christ, called the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:2). It is the wise virgins, the first love lovers, who will receive that privilege. No wonder Paul was so passionately consumed with being a first love lover of Jesus. Within the realms of that love is an eternal glory, position, and ranking which shall never be taken away.

First love lovers are those who have stayed close to the heart of Jesus thereby keeping their vessels full of oil and their lamps burning bright (Mat 25:1-13). Their first love produced first works that translate into gold, silver and precious stones, which are in turn, used as building materials for our eternal home. The New Jerusalem is an ongoing construction project being built from the works of those who lived surrendered and consecrated lives to Jesus. Thus the reason for the call to the church of Ephesus to repent and return to her first love so that she might do her first works (Rev 2:5). Are these words burning in your heart yet?

There will be sorrow and regret among many saints for the wood, hay, and stubble that will be burned up at the judgment. Their works, when tested by fire, will be found wanting. What would Jesus find today in many of our prominent churches and ministries across the globe if all our works were exposed? With fear and trembling we must serve the Lord. Jesus is at the door.

The mountaintop Christian life is one of first love. Anything short of that is a fallen state (Rev 2:5). From that heightened place of first love flow all first works. This is a great position of power. It is a place of sometimes almost silly but such pure delight. This is such a lovely place to be, a place of continually beholding the face of Jesus, of seeing His glory with the eyes of your understanding, of blessed rest where nothing un-nerves you.

You can buy this place with no money. You can pursue it without any earthly craft or ability. It is not a place exclusive to anyone above another. It is purchased with your heart only. It is purchased with a spiritual hunger for living bread, and thirst like a deer that pants for the water. It is a place available to the lowest status human being on the earth as well as the rich who will encounter difficulty in pursuit of this prize. Can you count the cost as Paul did? Count all things dung for this holy knowledge? Cast aside all other pursuits? How much is it worth to follow the Lamb wherever He goes throughout eternity (Rev 14:4)? Do you want that seat (Mat 20:21)? Will you enter into that holy city (Rev 21:2)?

Behold the Bridegroom cometh!!! Are you His bride in patient waiting? Do you long for His face? Is He your first love? If not, remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works. If true repentance works its course, in the end the glory revealed shall be so much greater than any of your present sufferings.

All the love of our glorious Bridegroom is backing the pen of this ready writer. May He bless these words to your ears, and multiply His grace in your life to love Him.

Be a support to us and follow our blog and help spread these messages. Also, consider subscribing to our ministry YouTube channel for weekly 15 minute Face to Face video impartations on the Spirit-filled life from my wife and I.  

Our books are forerunners to personal holiness, the move of God, and the return of the Lord. They also combat the departure from the faith and the turning away from the truth we are seeing in our day. 

Also, this ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those who believe in the mandate and message of revival and restoration that this ministry carries. Again, if this article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a tax-deductible contribution through our Paypal button to help? 

DONATE 

Thank you, and may God’s richest and best be yours.

THE TUMULTUOUS 2020s: THE DECADE THE CHURCH GETS OUT OF BED

The reality of a word from the Lord came to my wife in a dream just a couple of years ago. Contained within this dream is a vital word for the body of Christ in this hour—both corrective and encouraging that will bring hope to many.

In the dream, my wife was in bed and couldn’t get up. The same condition was true for the pastors and church we were ministering for, who also couldn’t get out of bed (spiritually speaking). My wife noted that she and these pastors possessed overwhelming strength and only needed to get up.

A large segment of the Charismatic/Pentecostal Church is slumbering right now—under-utilized, under-achieving in the Spirit, not living up to its potential, power, and effectiveness. There’s been a wasting of God’s spiritual resources, and a wasting of His power. But there’s a new birthing coming, not according to the old order or planting, but now there is a new God-birthing that will flow from the inward parts of the belly (man’s spirit).

In the dream my wife was pregnant and the doctors wanted to perform a C-section and cut her open, but someone said she did not have to give birth the old way as before. Instead she could give birth the God way from the inward parts of the belly, signifying in the Spirit. At that moment beginning from her navel there was an expansion of her belly that blossomed out.

Interpretation: We have super strength in the Spirit, but only need to wake up and get up. The Church will give birth to the true works of God in the coming decade. 

SECOND PART OF THE DREAM

The dream then moved to a church service where I was preaching. A group of people sitting in the back of the building were not engaged in what was being preached, but instead were thinking and talking about the outing in a park that had been planned afterwards. They wanted to play, have social time, and were given to entertainment. Their minds were not on the Lord, and what He was saying and doing in the service.

This speaks of the general condition of many in the Church in this hour. The minds of people are swirling with activity like tuning into different channels every few seconds looking for another thrill. It’s the nature of the carnal mind which leads to death, while the spiritual mind leads to life and peace (Rom. 8:6).

This is the reason Paul wrote:

“Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph. 5:14).

This verse was written to believers. Apparently as indicated by the verses before (1-13), these believers were walking in immorality, covetousness, idolatry and such, and Paul was admonishing them not to walk in darkness and in spiritual deadness but in the light. Later on he tells them to “be filled with the Spirit” (vv. 18-19) and to “be strong in the Lord” (Eph. 6:10).

IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP AND GET OUT OF BED

It is time to get out of bed and engage in the Lord’s work and agenda. This engaging begins with our communion with God and living a life of praise and thanksgiving, singing/speaking Spirit-inspired songs from the heart. Read Ephesians 5 & 6 in context. The infilling we receive will affect our hearts and our lives, and will lead to healthy marriages (Eph. 5:22-33), healthy parent-child relationships (Eph. 6:1-4), and healthy employer-employee relationships (Eph. 6:5-9). We’ve underestimated the impact of a Spirit-filled life according to Ephesians 5:18-19.

I’m a revivalist by calling, but the revival my heart is longing to see is not one that can be captured on social media—but rather one that is lived out in the daily lives of believers, symbolized by a consecration to the will of God resulting in a life of prayer, fasting, giving, and godly relationships, marriages and families. There is a divine dissatisfaction working in the hearts of God’s true people in this day that are no longer content with the performance and production of professional and sensational ministry, often led by self-appointed apostles and prophets screaming to be heard and bombarding us with yet another headline of a carnally motivated and fleshly embellished prophecy. Social media oozes with such and it actually entertains people and feeds their emotions with yet another ear-tickling yak-and-quack. This has created a vacuum in the hearts of genuine believers for authentic Christianity. This has escalated and is leading us into a current move among the body of Christ for relationship-based Christianity, love, discipleship and the caring one for another.

What good is it to shout, holler, clap, dance and hear another sermon on Sunday morning if our daily lives, relationships, marriages and children are a mess? What good does it do to participate in Christian conferences and events and listen to the latest greatest teaching or revelation or prophecy if we don’t possess a daily life of communion with God in both Word and Spirit? How will our lives count for eternity if we don’t have God’s plan for what we are doing?

Let’s stop fooling ourselves. Let’s wake up and get out of bed and put on the strength of the Lord and start living according to the potential and effectiveness that we possess inwardly in Christ.

Be a support to us and follow our blog and help spread these messages. Also, consider subscribing to our ministry YouTube channel for weekly 15 minute Face to Face video impartations on the Spirit-filled life from my wife and I.  

Our books are forerunners to personal holiness, the move of God, and the return of the Lord. They also combat the departure from the faith and the turning away from the truth we are seeing in our day. 

Also, this ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those who believe in the mandate and message of revival and restoration that this ministry carries. Again, if this article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a tax-deductible contribution through our Paypal button to help? 

DONATE 

Thank you, and may God’s richest and best be yours.